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I finally got around to installing a LS120 drive onto one of my PCs. I had the drive but no diskette, but otropogo kindly posted one to me.

The main problem, from the point of view of the desktop icons, is that insertion an removal of diskettes is not treated as a hotplug event by the kernel.

I had the same problem with the floppy drive, and could not find any fast/eficient code that would probe for an insterted diskette, without starting the motor. I think Jesse also tried to do this sometime ago. So I had to settle for keeping a floppy icon permanently on the desktop regardless whether a diskette is inserted or not.

It is more complicated for LS120 and Zip as these can have partitions, or could be super-floppies. So, we can't have a desktop icon named 'hdd4' for a zip drive before the diskette is actually inserted, as we don't know whether it is going to be 'hdd1', 'hdd4' or 'hdd' (superfloppy).

Right now I'm trying to find if there's any way to detect a LS120 or Zip disketter inserted, without starting the motor.

So, it's a work-in-progress...

Posted on 17 Aug 2008, 8:08

Comments:

Posted on 17 Aug 2008, 8:23 by lobsterGhost driveFrom my limited experience of 4.1 - detection of drives with default on - is OK. However I don't even have a floppy drive and I still have the icon . . .
Boot time is fast and so probing that would slow is probably an issue. Quite often with an Alpha I have to go back to a stable version - I am now coming to my third day with 4.1 Alpha 6 and it is quite workable . . .

Posted on 17 Aug 2008, 9:26 by crafty-oneLS120Check out this link - may give you some hints:
http://linux-sxs.org/bedtime/ls120/ls120_modprobe.html

Posted on 17 Aug 2008, 13:30 by ANOSageLS-120Unlike the passive insertion of discs in other drives, an electrical signal is produced without starting the motor for the LS-120. Note the whirling and grinding when you slip a disc into it. Of course, discs can be electrically ejected, too, from a SW command. In 'doze, right click offers 'eject'. The same was always true on old Apple systems. All the necessary info should be in the literature. Might be worth looking at the manufacturers' datasheets?
But we've been there already with Puppy. I remember discussing it with you. At one stage, I managed to make a bootable LS-120 disc. The only problem was that it took ~30mins. to boot! The topic has been discussed on the Forum at least once since then. I believe I contributed? It may have been when I offered you a disc, but otie offered you a boxload.

Posted on 18 Aug 2008, 22:33 by MattNLS-120I worked on a floppy diagnostic when the PC first came out and found the original design started the motor when a floppy was inserted or if you selected the floppy. there was a timer used in the BIOS which turned the motor off after a time if no other action was taken with the floppy. Also found that there was a delay of half a second (Might have been longer, can't remember for sure) before a read or write could be done in either of these two conditions. That was to let the motor get the floppy diskette up to speed.

I looked at the LS-120 drives right after they became available and found that the same start up delays were used with that drive too. I've never looked at a zip drive, but since it is basicly a suped up floppy I have a feeling it works in the same way when you first access it as any of the floppies do.